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Marvel Comics Said To Be Experiencing A Heap Of Trouble

According to a Marvel intern who’s now voiced his concerns and is operating under the name of “The Whisperer,” the situation is becoming pretty dire. Not surprisingly, there’s a push by Marvel big wigs to get back to meat and potatoes as it were, but they risk putting themselves on a slippery slope by casting aside diversity characters.

Editorial is miserable. Understaffed, under experienced and overworked. The direction at the top corporate level is a mess of politics and in-fighting. They all look the fool to Disney because of Feige’s split and the bad PR & constant gaming of their declining sales is wearing on them. Top brass want to make a hard left back to what worked with Steve, Thor, Tony, Banner and other recognizable faces. Editorial knows how bad it’s going to look to push all their diversity celebrations to the side. Reality is those books didn’t sell. A lot of it had to do with Marvel’s chincy practices finally reaching a breaking point with fans but the internal editorial spin is that comic shop fans aren’t ready to embrace change.

In reading this statement, it sounds like Marvel is not making money and is a failure that is caused by one or two things.

Not true. We all know that Marvel is making a fortune, their characters are popular, the movies, TV shows, animation, licensing are doing very well.

Why would comics be immune to the sagging and decreased sales of all magazines? Comic book sales, with the exception on the 1960s, have been declining since WWII, when 25 million comics were sold each month Superman sold 3 million a month then, 800,000 in the 1960s and 50,000 now.

A major fact is that the comics division are NOT as profitable to a big company as they would want. Comics have always done better with “smaller” ownership. That is, t all the Marvel characters on screen were created when Marvel was a small company, with one owner, in the 1960s into the early 1970s. (Jessica Jones, 1990 is the only exception. And she is in because of diversity, not popularity).

Same for DC. All those characters you see on screen, The Flash, Green Arrow, Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman were created in the 1940s, before DC was bought by Warner’s in the 1970. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes are the exceptions they were created in 1958!!!!!)
During the depression, artists and writers, with great talent, worked for almost no money and no creative rights. Not true today so the industry simply does not attract the talent they once did.

Creativity comes from individuals, not from corporations. When they, at the top, order changes they do not know what the creators know, what is popular and what is not. Disney wants “Diversity” in their comics because that is their movie audience. But their market for comics, middle age men, is NOT the same diverse audience as their movies. They look for comfortable heroes that they are familiar with and with whom they can identify with.

Finally, and sadly, the minor leagues of comics are gone. That is, the young people getting interested in comics. Comics are no longer available on newsstands, candy stores, and drug stores. You have to travel to a comic book store and NO ONE takes their kids there. There is no longer Casper, Little Dot, Richie Rich, Lassie, Sugar and Spike or any comics for entry level children. None are written specifically for young women, who’d never go to a comic book store anyway.

A small list of “Diversity Changes”
Iron Man is now a teen age girl. (REALLY!)
Captain America is now an African American
The original Cap is now a Nazi
Bruce Banner, the Hulk, is now dead
The Wolverine is Dead
Thor is a woman, the original Thor has lost an arm and is no longer worthy to be Thor
Professor X is dead
Captain Marvel is now a woman
They stopped publish the Fantastic Four, one of their most popular comics, because Fox has the movie rights.
Ms. Marvel is a Muslim teenager.

Thanks Barry for the insight.. Looks like the post was due to some "leaks" from an intern that the comics are not doing so well compared to the movies/tv etc..

How valid the intern's thoughts are, well, who knows..

I agree with you that the audience for comics are definitely different from the movies/tv shows and as such the comics will suffer if the corporate bosses shift the focus like they are doing with the movies/tv shows..

A small list of “Diversity Changes”Iron Man is now a teen age girl. (REALLY!)Captain America is now an African AmericanThe original Cap is now a NaziBruce Banner, the Hulk, is now deadThe Wolverine is DeadThor is a woman, the original Thor has lost an arm and is no longer worthy to be ThorProfessor X is deadCaptain Marvel is now a womanThey stopped publish the Fantastic Four, one of their most popular comics, because Fox has the movie rights.Ms. Marvel is a Muslim teenager.

May I just repeat a point that people who criticize comic book sales these days seem to Passover. Simply, all print media, newspapers, magazines, and books I have taken tremendous hits over the last two decades. Why would Comics be different, why would they be the exception, to this role. Pulp magazines used to be incredibly popular and now they are extinct. Newspapers and magazines have fired huge amounts of their staff members. Sadly, Comics are being replaced by video games, TV shows and movies that use the same characters. I really wonder what the world will look like in 25 years.